practically shit

practically shit is a joint exhibition of students from the art university linz and the academy of fine arts vienna. for one week, the kulturtankstellewill host artistic works dealing with dirt and cleanliness, shit, trash or purity.

Also part of the program are public talks, discussions, a workshop for children and performances. The exhibition will be full to the brim – approximately 50 works will be displayed.

Practically shit is the result of a lecture with the same name. Within the lecture we have been discussing the artistic, cultural and political dimensions that come with shit and cleanliness. We have been concerned with different topics ranging from the so called „gute policey“, as a concept for order in the early modern age, to aesthetical theories about disgust and repulsion and the mundane contacts with shit, with politics of ordering, with labour, etc. one key interest was on questioning the public or pseudo-public spaces in Linz, like the train station hauptbahnhof.

In general, we tried to bring forward a critical stance towards the contradictory moments of order and we also wanted to stress the close connection between cleanliness and violence.

Furthermore, we should ask ourselves if and how it is possible to intervene practically into order and regimes with artistic methods or works of art. be it in exhibition spaces, institutions, states, the street or at home.

how could we deal with all the shit? how do we respond to purity? how to organize refusal?